Looking for software for a small mail order operation

[PeterT]

I'm with a small university that has a mail order operation that ships about 5 orders a day. Most of the orders come in by phone. It sells retail and wholesale. Some customers buy on terms and receivables need to be tracked.

80% of the orders ship by media mail and some are shipped internationally.

I've looked at a variety of mail order software packages and they are all too complicated for such a small operation. The wholesale version of QuickBooks would probably work but I want software where the backend data is available for reading and writing.

[PeterT]

Does anyone here have a mail order business that ships less than 10 orders a day? If so, what software are you using?

[The Old Sarge]

Sorry, Pete. I don't know of any.

[Corey Bryant]

Are you looking for an ASP / PHP solution? What electronic payment gateway is it using? Tracking - does it also need to be hooked into USPS, UPS, etc or just show the order has been shipped?

[PeterT]

Are you looking for an ASP / PHP solution?
I do not want a hosted solution.

What electronic payment gateway is it using?
What is the 'it' that you are referring to?

Tracking - does it also need to be hooked into USPS, UPS, etc or just show the order has been shipped?
Tracking is not important. The ability to calculate shipping costs based on the estimated weight of the order is important.

[dvdtvshows]

Here are two points of reference:

Mail Order Manager (just software)
http://www.dydacomp.com/mom/main.asp

Prostores (hosted by lots of companies, ebay bought the software business)
http://www.serrahost.com/

Best Wishes,
dvdtvshows
of http://www.dvdtvshows.com

[noblenull]

You should check out http://www.atrex.com. They offer a free download of the fully functional program. Pricing is resonable for your level, starting at $299. They give you read only access via ODBC.

You could also wait for the release of the free 3 user version of Interprise Suite. It will run on a free version of SQL Server Express. I'm not sure if they allow read/write access to the database, but it would be fairly easy to develop for if they do. They keep pushing back the release date... you could be waiting forever.

[sevenoaks]

... a description of how this issue can be addressed only with a creative use of MSOffice can be found here.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HowToShipAnything.html

I only add that, in my experience, a large segment of small businesses needs are coverd by Office's programming features.
I hope to be of help.

[Gary Harrison]

Hi Noblenull,

Interprise Suite is based on Microsoft SQL Server. You can directly read and write access into the SQL tables.